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Captain Morgan demands cohesive England

Eoin Morgan demanded England gel better at the Cricket World Cup, or face more damning defeats.

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Written BySportal

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England captain Eoin Morgan said "collective performances" were
required if they were to turn around their stuttering Cricket World
Cup.

A 111-run loss to Australia in Melbourne last Sunday was
followed by an eight-wicket thrashing at the hands of other
co-hosts New Zealand in Wellington on Friday, with England bowled
out for 123 inside 34 overs.

Morgan insinuated that the squad was not united and urged his
players to work together or face further poor results - with a
potential 'banana skin' fixture against Scotland beckoning on
Monday.

"I think collectively we're going to have to get tighter as a
group and produce collective performances," Morgan told a news
conference.

"So instead of producing individual performances, we need to
produce a team performance."

While Morgan claimed their loss to Australia was down to being
"tentative", he insisted New Zealand - led by one of the finest
spells of swing bowling from Tim Southee (7-33) - outplayed
England.

"These first two games... are going to be difficult games
playing in these conditions," the Dublin-born skipper said.

"But we shouldn't be beaten by this much. We were also
out-skilled in the first game we played against Australia. We were
way below par."

Morgan's own flailing form did take a turn for the better on
Friday, as he made 17 off 41 deliveries and combined for his side's
highest partnership - 47 - with top-scorer Joe Root (46).

With England at 104-3, Morgan took to spinner Daniel Vettori -
only to be caught at long-on by a diving Adam Milne - a dismissal
that was the start of a collapse.

Morgan had no regrets trying to take the game on, as he made his
highest score since a century to open the tri-series with Australia
and India in January.

"As the partnership progresses, we keep trying to put the
emphasis on putting pressure on their bowlers, and again they
bowled well and they put pressure on us," Morgan said.

"When things are going their way, that happens, and I said that
and we move on.

"But looking back, I still would have played that aggressive
shot because at the time we needed to take the game continually to
them because they were taking the game away from us.